As the country re-opens in most every state we are confronted with getting back in the life insurance game either with face-to-face appointments or virtually. Those agents that were successful at selling virtually want to continue doing so. Some IMO’s are not contracting or supporting agents who want to sell virtually…more about that in a minute.
To have a successful career in life insurance sales you need people to talk too. A lot of agents stopped their marketing last year and are struggling to get started now that were close to “normal.”
When you stop marketing (prospecting), you’ve slashed your wrists and it’s only a matter of time before your practice is barely alive or dead altogether. Many an insurance or advisory practice needs its life blood to stay alive and thrive. That lifeblood is marketing and prospecting.
Many agents find themselves frozen with fear on where to turn to start marketing again. Directmail is still the most qualified lead, also the most expensive. 1000-piece mailings are seeing ever lowing returns driving the per-lead cost towards $90 to $100 each. That’s not sustainable unless you’re sitting on a pile of money to invest in marketing.
Some agents have resorted to joining captive companies to get the free leads but soon realize the 40% to 70% commission is not worth the effort needed or they are not supporting virtual sales.
The reason most IMO’s are specifically NOT allowing virtual phone sales is twofold:
- It takes more insurance leads to sell over the phone vs. face-to-face. They either don’t have the leads or feel agents waste a lot of leads trying to sell over the phone.
- Low persistency especially in Final Expense market. Average persistency in FE is around 60% for agents selling virtually. Most every carrier will terminate an agent contract with persistency that low. To an IMO those agents disappear, and the chargeback debt rolls up to them. The IMO is also in danger of either losing a carrier contract or losing their comp level as their own persistency begins to falter.
The agents that do very well selling FE over the phone know how to close keeping their persistency over 70% which is acceptable to most carriers but can feel like your chasing business to reinstate policies or write new business to off-set the drop-offs.
When working Final Expense face-to-face, in my opinion, you have a better opportunity to maintain a better persistency. People in this market look more favorably to agents when they can look them in the eye. They are also not as tech savvy for a Zoom meeting nor do most have the equipment.
Selling Mortgage Protection or traditional life virtually is a whole different environment. If you have a good script and know how to close your persistency can be well over 80%. You’ll need less leads to be successful…generally around 20 leads a week. Closing three to four apps a week and your production is anywhere from $7500 to $11,500 a month.
This cliental is a little more tech savvy and will have a computer to conduct a Zoom meeting. If you use a virtual meeting room where you as the agent have the ability to pass on the presenter to the client, they can sign the eApp with you without having to send an email for signatures.
When it comes to signatures ALWAYS wait for them to sign if you send them an email signature option. People can open the email while you are on the phone…it gives you the opportunity to answer any questions as well as verify it was completed.
The bottom line…seek out the IMO that best fits your life insurance business model providing the commission you deserve and sales platform you want. They are out there and we’re waiting to support your success and help bring your business back to life.
© Copyright Legacy Secure on MI Inc
